Images

During Shays' Rebellion, the Shaysites flee from Massachusetts militia during their failed assault on the Springfield Armory, on 25 January 1787. Illustration by C. Kendrick, from The People's History of the World, vol. VI by Edward Sylvester...

Roman mosaic depicting damnatio ad bestias where two condemned men are being thrown to the beasts. The arena is littered with spears and splashes of blood. Numerous animals can be seen, including five bears and six big cats. In the two surviving...

Mosaic floor depicting two venatores hunting a tiger, from Constantinople's Great Palace, 6th century CE. Venatores ("hunters") were a type of performer in ancient Rome who specialised in hunting and fighting wild animals in Roman...

A graffito with a gladiatorial scene on a 1st-century CE fresco from Pompeii. Naples National Archaeological Museum, Italy.

Funerary gladiator relief, found near the archaeological site of Lucus Feroniae, an ancient sanctuary in Lazio (Italy), dating from the late 1st century BCE. The reliefs depict the final phase of six fights between gladiators. They...

A Roman gladiator painted on a glass beaker from Roman Egypt, 1st century CE. It is part of the Begram Treasure group of artefacts from the 1st-2nd century CE, discovered in the area of Begram in Afghanistan, which includes a large number...

The "Colchester Vase" is a cremation vessel decorated with a continuous frieze depicting scenes relating to arena spectacles, including the combat between two gladiators named Memnon and Valentinus. Memnon is a well-armoured secutor gladiator...

This reconstructed piece of wall includes fragments of the original Roman fresco from Camulodunum (Roman Colchester) depicting gladiators. The figure on the right is a defeated murmillo gladiator. He has dropped his shield and has raised...

Bronze statuette of a hoplomachus, a type of gladiator in ancient Rome, armed to resemble a Greek hoplite (soldier with heavy armour and helmet, a round shield, a spear, and a sword). The hoplomachus wore a bronze helmet, a manica (armguard...

Roman mosaic panel depicting a contest between two combatants attacking one another with cudgels (short, thick sticks used as weapons) and a whip. The introduction to the gladiatorial contests consisted of a prolusio (prelude). The various...